


Switcharoo

by quicksilversquared



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, body swap with the kwami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 03:26:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9302153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilversquared/pseuds/quicksilversquared
Summary: Paris' most recent akuma is determined to make people understand how difficult it is to be in another person's shoes using her handy-dandy body-swapping weapon. Unfortunately, Ladybug and Chat Noir get caught up in the crossfire. It probably wouldn't have been a huge deal, but they don't swap with each other.They body-swap with their kwami.





	

Walk-a-Mile wasn't the most destructive akuma that Ladybug and Chat Noir had ever faced. She was an akumatized travel agent that had finally had enough of rude customers, and now she was making people switch bodies so that they could, well, _walk a mile in someone else's shoes._ She was causing mass panic, but at least the damage to cars and buildings was being kept to a minimum.

"D'you think the spell reverses if people actually walk a whole mile?" Chat Noir asked, leaping over a rooftop to avoid a beam of light. He paused, frowning. "Wait, is a mile more or less than a kilometer?"

"More, I think! I don't know!" Ladybug narrowly blocked a beam of light. "I wonder why they went with a kilometer instead of a mile?"

"Maybe Hawk Moth is American," Chat Noir suggested. "Maybe the akuma victim is American. Maybe he just thought it sounded cooler this way."

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Walk-a-Mile sang, strolling along the rooftops and swinging her weapon as she went. "Don't you want to find out how other people feel? Or do you only think about yourself?"

"That doesn't even make sense," Chat Noir grumbled as the superheroes ducked behind a building. "I _wouldn't_ find out how other people feel if I switched bodies. I'd find out how other people's bodies feel, maybe-"

"No feeling up other people, kitten," Ladybug ordered, cutting across Chat Noir's grumbles.

He only grinned. "That wasn't what I meant."

"Sure, kitty-cat."

They peered around the corner in unison, watching as Walk-a-mile hit more civilians with her weapon. There were cries of confusion and anger as people swapped bodies with friends, family members, and random other Partisans.

"People are switching with whoever is closest to them," Chat Noir commented as he watched the chaos below. "So wouldn't we just switch with each other? That's not so bad."

"Except I don't know how to fight with your baton, and I'm not sure you would know what to do with my yo-yo." Ladybug dodged back behind the chimney and let out a sigh. "It's too bad our Miraculous don't protect us completely from the akumas' weapons."

"There wouldn't be any fight then. Which would be a good thing," Chat Noir added hastily, seeing the dry look Ladybug sent his way. He grinned sheepishly. "Hey, any time I get to spend with you is a good time."

"You're impossible." Ladybug was smiling, though, just barely. She focused again a moment later, coming up with a plan. "Okay, if we wait until she's distracted and try to sneak up from behind, then we can grab the zapper. Tackle her if she tries to get away."

Chat Noir nodded and took off, keeping to the far sides of rooftops as he circled around. Ladybug waited a beat before following, summoning a Lucky Charm as she went.

As it turned out, Walk-a-Mile had _very_ fast reflexes, or maybe she was just _pretending_ to be distracted with the panicked civilians. She whipped around just as Ladybug was winding up to throw her Lucky Charm, making the spotted superhero miss as she let go at the same time she dodged. The red and black hammer flew uselessly through the air and through a window.

And then everything started to go wrong.

Chat Noir, on the opposite side of the barrage of light strikes, didn't see Ladybug lose her Lucky Charm, so he Cataclysmed the street in an effort to distract Walk-a-Mile. Ladybug, taken off guard by the unexpected loss of the Lucky Charm, didn't notice the street crumbling from Cataclysm and tripped over the rough surface, falling to the ground in a move more characteristic of her civilian form. She stayed on the ground a moment too long before trying to scramble away.

Walk-a-Mile cackled, took aim, and fired.

 

* * *

 

When the dust settled and light faded, it became very apparent that something had gone very wrong. The superheroes were in a tangled heap in the road, several meters from where Ladybug had been initially thanks to Chat Noir's just-too-late pounce to try to get her out of the way, and they looked... _different_.

Like, a lot different.

Ladybug's suit was pink instead of red, the pattern was ever-so-slightly different, and two long pink ribbons trailed down her back. Her hair was black, like the normal Ladybug's, but in a bun instead of pigtails, and her bangs hung differently than normal.

Chat Noir's suit was much the same, but the boy in it was not. Olive-toned skin replaced pale skin and black hair replaced blond. When he lifted his face off the ground with a groan, it became obvious that Chat Noir had been replaced by someone else.

Walk-a-Mile gaped, taken aback. She shook her zapper before addressing at the dazed superheroes picking themselves off the street.

"It doesn't matter who's behind the mask!" the akuma yelled. "I don't care if your magic fiddled with mine! It won't stop me from taking your Miraculous!"

"My what now?" Chat Noir asked in confusion before he bolted upright with a series of colorful words. The noise made Ladybug bolt upright with a yelp. The two heroes stared at each other in panic and confusion before a twin set of beeps sent them bolting blindly down the street and up onto the rooftops, Walk-a-Mile hot on their heels.

"We have to get away from her and then we can figure out what happened!" Ladybug yelled, lassoing a building and yanking herself forward. "Go as fast as you can!"

"I _am_ ," Chat Noir groused, shooting across the houses as he clung to his extending pole. He shot a look behind him. Slowly but surely, Walk-a-Mile was falling behind. Like a number of the other villains that they had faced, the akumatized employee was faster than the typical civilian and doubtless would be able to keep up with Ladybug and Chat Noir if all three were running.

However, Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't running, they were practically _flying_ , and so it only took two minutes before they were positive that they had shaken the akuma.

"Okay, we need to find a spot to detransform," Ladybug said, eyeing the skyline. "We should stick together, since obviously something went wrong, but maybe we should be on opposite sides of something."

"Secret identities?"

"Exactly. We look different now, but who knows about once we've detransformed." Ladybug leapt across a gap between rooftops before skidding to a halt. She peered down into the gap before waving Chat Noir over. "There's a dumpster here! We can detransform on opposite sides and figure out what's going on."

 

* * *

 

Ladybug released her transformation first in a shower of pink sparkles, sending a very confused and dazed kwami spiraling dizzily into the air as perspectives and realities blurred, like Walk-a-Mile's spell was only now taking full effect.

"Oh no," the girl who clearly wasn't Marinette breathed as she caught the pink kwami in the air. "Walk-a-Mile didn't make you and Chat Noir switch bodies. She made you and I switch bodies."

"Tikki?" Marinette-kwami asked blearily, rubbing one big blue eye with a tiny pink fist. She yawned, then blinked up at Tikki. The drowsiness vanished from her body in a flash as she looked down at herself with a squeal. "I'm a kwami now? Oh no oh no oh no oh no-"

"Don't panic!" Tikki squeaked, waving her hands as she tried to catch the panicking girl-turned-kwami as she shot into the air. "Okay, we have to think logically about this. We need to recharge, and then we can get back out-"

"Oh, this is a _disaster-_ "

"Marinette, calm down," Tikki ordered in her most no-nonsense voice, capturing the kwami and keeping a tight hold on her. "Miraculous Cleaning Light will put everything back right. We need to get you recharged, and then Plagg and I can transform again and finish the fight. It is _not_ the end of the world."

"Can you and Chat Noir's kwami fight, though?" Marinette asked, finally calming down enough to perch on Tikki's hand and look up at her with wide blue eyes. "I- I mean, you've been part of so many fights before, I know _that_ , but not as the actual person doing the fighting!"

Tikki winced. That...was a concern of hers, yes. Of course, it wasn't as though Marinette had had a lot of fighting experience when she first became Ladybug. Marinette _had_ had the distinct advantage of being used to residing in a human body but still, it couldn't possibly be _that_ hard to figure out. "We'll figure it out. Plagg and I are really familiar with our powers, so it won't be like your first fight."

Hopefully they still had their normal powers. She had had her yo-yo earlier though, so that was a good sign.

"Hey, you don't look like me," Marinette commented as she really looked at Tikki. "I mean, you don't look at all like my civilian form. I thought we just switched bodies, not forms?"

Tikki blinked her wide blue eyes as she glanced down at herself. Sure, she had noticed that Chat Noir maybe looked different than normal, but the significance hadn't sunk in through the blur of their escape from Walk-a-Mile. She was wearing a different outfit than Marinette had been, a loose red jacket over a white shirt and black pants.

"You look different from me, too. You have more spots, but they're smaller, and you're pink instead of red." Tikki opened her hands, studying the form that Marinette had taken. "It's cute!"

"It's _strange."_

Tikki giggled and moved Marinette onto her shoulder. "We'll get everything back to normal soon. The Miraculous magic must have interfered with Walk-a-mile's magic, so we look different than normal. This is good, really. We can stick together with Chat Noir and Plagg this way and your identities won't even be revealed!"

On the other side of the dumpster, Plagg and Adrien were adjusting to the change with much less freaking out. Plagg was admiring his new reflection in a discarded mirror next to the dumpster, preening and brushing his hair back before straightening the outfit he was wearing. Adrien was inspecting his new body, holding tiny paws up to the light and spinning in the air.

"I've always wanted to be able to fly," Adrien said, doing a few more spins. "This is cool!"

"It gets old after a while." Plagg twisted so that he could see the back of his jacket better. He gave an approving hum. "I don't suppose we could stay like this for a while, maybe? I look _damn_ fine."

A snort interrupted the two boys. Adrien froze upside-down in mid-air as Plagg paused with one hand halfway through his hair. They shared a slightly guilty look as a short, lean girl rounded the dumpster, pink kwami bobbing along behind her. Adrien was 100% positive that he had never seen the girl before, but yet she had an air of familiarity.

"Someone will notice if the kids are missing, Plagg," she ordered. "Take a few pictures if you really like looking at yourself that much. We need to deal with this akuma as fast as possible."

"But don't I look great, Tikki? You look good as well!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Human-Tikki was in full business mode. "We'll have to recharge and get back out there, so let's get going and find some food."

Plagg perked up, abandoning the mirror at once. "Cheese bar time!"

"Not you, idiot. The kwamis."

Adrien groaned at the thought, flopping down on Plagg's shoulder inelegantly. "I don't _waaaaanna_ eat Camembert..." The mere _idea_ made him want to retch. Maybe he could have a different kind of cheese instead, something a little less _smelly_.

He promptly shut up about a second later as a pink polka-dotted kwami reappeared from behind Tikki. He was _not_ going to whine in front of his Lady like a little kid.

"You might not have to!" Tikki assured him, reaching out her hands to scoop him off of Plagg. "Kwami like different things to recharge. I like cookies. Just think about what your favorite food might be, and we'll go find it for you." She paused and winced. "Uh, money might be a problem though."

"My wallet is on my desk in my room!" Ladybug volunteered immediately. Her high, sweet voice made Adrien grin. It hadn't been changed at all by their transformation, and even the little bit of familiarity was comforting. "I can fly up there and grab it and carry it down for you."

"You can do the same with your wallet, kid," Plagg said, snatching Adrien back from Tikki and shoving him roughly into a pocket on his jacket. Adrien resisted the urge to bite Plagg's fingers in protest. It was probably better not to give his kwami any ideas. "And maybe grab a camera too?"

"Let's meet back here in fifteen minutes. Don't get caught." Tikki fixed Plagg with a glare. " _Don't_ just hang around outside your Chosen's house. Hang out across the street or something until he gets close, then get out of there before anyone can find you with a wallet that's not yours."

Plagg snorted. " _Relax,_ Tikki. No one's going to notice me. Promise."

 

* * *

 

It didn't take Marinette long to sneak up to her room. Carrying her wallet back down, though? _That_ was a whole different story. Her wallet was packed _way_ too full for her to pick up more than a couple centimeters.

"Okay, I just need to take some things out," Marinette decided after a few failed attempts at taking off only sent her tumbling painfully back down onto the desk. With a little bit of effort (darned velcro! It wasn't this difficult to pull apart when she was full-sized!), Marinette got her wallet open.

"I don't need the gift cards or my credit card," Marinette told her room, sifting through her things. Really, it was no wonder her wallet was so heavy with all of the things she had stuffed inside of it. "And if I take out all of my change, then it'll be lighter!" After a short struggle with the zipper on her coin purse, she got it open far enough to tug coins out. They clattered to her desk loudly, even as Marinette tried to muffle their sound. She couldn't stop the quiet swear as a couple coins rolled off her desk and bounced noisily to the floor, rolling and clattering to a stop. She froze for several long seconds, straining her ears for any sign of movement down below. Thankfully all was quiet, which really shouldn't have been much of a surprise. It was rush hour at the bakery, so both of her parents would be busy downstairs.

Coins emptied (mostly) onto the desk, Marinette tried to pick up the wallet again. She let out a quiet squeal of glee when it came off the desk easily. It was a bit unwieldy, sure, but she could fly without too much of a problem.

Triumphant, Marinette shot back out her open window. She had a kwami-turned-human to get back to.

 

* * *

 

Over at the Agreste mansion, Adrien was having a bit more trouble. Getting into his room wasn't a problem. Finding his wallet wasn't a problem.

But his wallet was _really. freaking. heavy._

Adrien dragged his wallet across his floor, letting out a little _uuumph_ with every tug. It was slow going- too slow- but at least he was getting somewhere.

Getting out the window was like climbing Mt. Everest. Adrien scrabbled at the glass, trying to find a handhold of some sort as he tried to fly upward with all of his might.

"This is stupid," Adrien gasped as the wallet dragged him down again. His face squeaked against the glass as he slid back down to the floor. "I'll never get out at this rate."

Plagg would be waiting outside impatiently, he knew. If left too long to his own devices, Plagg would no doubt start causing all sorts of mischief. Adrien _had_ to get his stupid wallet out the window before that happened.

Adrien cast a frantic look around his room as he lay on top of his wallet on the floor. Maybe he could find _something_ to make a ramp or staircase up to the open part of his window- boxes, maybe, or DVD cases. After a two-minute search, it became obvious that he would have no luck there. Everything in his room was either too small to be helpful or too large to be moved. He would have to look for a different strategy.

Adrien hovered in midair, his mind whirring as he thought about a million things all at once. He and Ladybug had to get to the bottom of this and get everything turned back to normal before his father (or, rather, Nathalie) found out he was MIA. He couldn't figure out why Walk-a-Mile's spell hadn't worked properly and the body switch wasn't quite complete. Part of his brain was mentally running through his schedule, trying to figure out when he was likely to be missed. There were no photoshoots for the next couple days, and Nathalie told him that he would likely be eating alone because his father would like be in meetings on and off all day...

He froze. _Meetings. All day._

_Empty house._

Going _down_ the stairs instead of up and out the window. He would have to cross a larger distance, sure (crossing the house and the courtyard instead of dropping out his window and onto the sidewalk behind the house), but at this rate, it would be faster. He would just have to hope that Plagg could somehow catch on to his new plan.

It took _forever_ to get to the front door, even with the slippery floor. The already-expansive distance turned into _kilometers_ when he was only palm-sized, and the weight of his wallet wasn't helping any. The process sped up considerably when he went tumbling down the stairs. The heavy wallet threw him off balance, landing on top of him repetitively as he let out a series of undignified squeals as he bounced down to the main level. Getting through the front door was even more of a struggle, but finally he managed to shove the wallet through a crack and then phase through the door itself (which was _very cool_ , so he did it five more times for good measure before moving on).

And then the courtyard loomed, extensive and open and very, very _exposed._ Somehow he had to make it across the expanse of brick without being noticed.

_Yeah, good luck with that._

The sun beat down on Adrien as he worked his way down the second set of stairs (more tumbling) and across the courtyard. He could tell that he would likely have to replace his wallet after this; there was _no way_ that the underside wasn't getting scuffed up beyond repair thanks to all of the dragging. Still, the important thing was that he was making progress.

And then several familiar voices reached his ears.

"I'm glad that meeting ended early. Madam Tessock normally is so much more argumentative." Gabriel Agreste's familiar voice floated through the air. "Perhaps she has finally realized that I know what I'm doing more than she does."

"Will you be getting started on sewing today?" Nathalie asked. "Or do you want me to see if I can move up one of tomorrow's meetings?"

Swearing, Adrien dropped the wallet and raced for cover as the familiar figures rounded the corner and opened the gate. He hid in the shadows, hoping that somehow both his father and Nathalie (and the Gorilla, who was doubtless with them) would overlook the wallet.

He should have been paying more attention. If he had heard them just a bit sooner, he might have been able to get the wallet somewhere where it was more likely to be overlooked. If his father had Nathalie take the wallet back to his room, he'd lose valuable time.

For a few seconds, Adrien thought his luck would hold out. His father was deep in conversation with Nathalie, and the Gorilla was nowhere to be seen. They were looking at Nathalie's tablet and not the ground. Just a couple more meters and they would be past it-

"What's that on the ground?" Nathalie asked suddenly, coming to a halt and pointing at the wallet. From his hiding spot in the shadows, Adrien winced.

Gabriel picked it up immediately and opened the front to reveal Adrien's student ID. "It's Adrien's. I wonder how it got here." He frowned. "Surely he wouldn't be so careless to drop it here and not notice?"

"There _is_ an akuma attack going on," Nathalie pointed out. "Perhaps he was in a hurry. I'm sure he'll notice it missing soon enough."

Gabriel frowned, turning the wallet over. His frown only deepened when he saw the scuff marks covering the previously spotless leather. "Perhaps. In the meantime, I think I'll hold on to it. If he wants to come claim his belongings and explain how it got in this condition, he may." With that, Gabriel Agreste continued on his way across the courtyard and up the stairs, returning immediately to his previous topic of conversation without realizing how much he had just upset Adrien's plans.

Adrien let out the tiniest of whines as his father vanished inside the giant front doors. His tiny arm was still outstretched, reaching helplessly for the wallet that was so very far out of his grasp.

This was the worst possible outcome Adrien could have imagined. Gabriel had a unsettlingly sharp memory, so there was no way Adrien could try to snatch the wallet from him and hope that he wouldn't notice. It was completely possible that his father would keep the wallet on him until Adrien dropped by to pick it up.

Hopefully Ladybug had some change to spare. He wasn't used to charity, but he could always pay her back later.

Plagg was waiting impatiently in the park when Adrien zipped over, pacing back and forth and glancing impatiently at the Agreste mansion. He jumped when Adrien popped up in front of him.

"What took so long?" Plagg hissed, stuffing Adrien quickly inside of his jacket. "And's where's the loot?"

"My wallet is really heavy," Adrien grumbled. His stomach growled loudly. "And then once I finally got it outside, then my dad came and I had to drop it so that I could hide, and now it's in his pocket. Or maybe in his desk. There's no way I can get it now."

Plagg let out the longest sigh Adrien had ever heard. "Seriously? I waited twenty minutes for you to not even manage to get anything? Pathetic."

"Rude."

"Let's hope that Tikki and Ladybug had more luck." Plagg's irritated expression didn't fade. "Because otherwise you're going dumpster diving to recharge. Just to let you know."

 

* * *

 

The girls, as it turned out, had been a _lot_ more successful. They were waiting impatiently in the alley, playing with Ladybug's phone. Tikki was taking a selfie as Ladybug hung over her shoulder when the kwami-turned-girl noticed them.

"Oh, look who finally turned up! I was starting to wonder what happened to you two," Tikki said, pocketing the phone. "Did you have problems?"

"Blondie here couldn't even get his wallet." Plagg didn't even hesitate before throwing Adrien under the bus. "I waited _forever_ and he couldn't even get a bit of chump change."

"It was too heavy," Adrien said immediately. "I tried dragging it out the door after I couldn't get it out of the window and then my father came in and he found the wallet and took it."

Tikki gave him a _look_ that wouldn't have looked out of place on a particularly strict schoolteacher. "Why didn't you just pull some money out of your wallet? Twenty euros would have been plenty, and it wouldn't have been very heavy to carry."

Adrien positively _drooped_. "I didn't think of that."

"Obviously," Plagg snarked. "Otherwise you would have done it."

"You could have suggested it, Plagg," Tikki pointed out, her voice going sharp. Plagg immediately cowered away like a scolded puppy. " _You_ are the one who is more familiar with how much kwamis can carry, after all."

"May I borrow some money, my lady?" Adrien begged, interrupting Tikki and Plagg's face-off by flying over to Ladybug and giving her his best kitten eyes. "I'll pay you back once I get my wallet again, but my tummy is grumbly _right now._ "

"Stop it with the kitty eyes," Ladybug grumbled. Adrien only widened his eyes more. She wilted within seconds. "FINE. Fine, fine, yes, of _course_ you can borrow some money. Have you figured out what you want to recharge?"

Adrien shook his head. "Do you?"

"I think pie would be good. Maybe cake." She giggled. "I'm like Tikki. I like sweet things."

"You have a sweet tooth? Good to know." Adrien let out a huff as he thought about what might be his recharge food. "Maybe croissants? Croissants sound tasty."

"I know a great place for croissants and cakes!" Tikki exclaimed. "I'll go in with the wallet and the kwamis. Plagg, you stay outside."

Plagg pouted. "But I'm hungry too!"

"I'll get cheese bread or something for you," Tikki promised, tucking Ladybug into her jacket pocket. She sent a nervous glance at the entrance of the alley. Yells of panic carried faintly on the wind, but there was nothing they could do about it now. "Let's get going. The press is going to start wondering where Ladybug and Chat Noir are."

Ladybug popped out of Tikki's pocket with the phone. She waved it at Tikki. "They're _already_ wondering where we are, but Alya saw what happened. She made a post saying that we were recharging and should be back soon." A pause. "She posted that twenty minutes ago."

Tikki huffed. "Normally we would have been back out within five, six minutes. We really do need to get going." She pushed Ladybug back into her pocket and grabbed Adrien, shoving him in with her. Adrien waved sheepishly as the pink kwami shuffled over to settle at the other side of the large pocket.

It didn't take long to get to the bakery. A bell rang as Tikki entered, and Adrien inhaled deeply as a heavenly smell surrounded them. He couldn't resist the urge to stick his head out, just a little bit, so that he could see where they were. Glass shelves lined the walls and were covered with trays of croissants, rolls, cookies, and small cakes. Baskets on top of the shelves held crispy brown baguettes. Twisting his head just a bit, he caught sight of Marinette's mother.

Ah. So they were at the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Now Adrien was _certain_ that, whatever they got, it would be delicious.

Tikki shoved him back into the pocket and approached the counter. "Hi!"

Sabine beamed at her. "Welcome to the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie! What can I get for you today?"

"Hi! I'd like, uh..." Tikki was floundering a little bit. Ordering things at a bakery was a _little_ out of her pool of experience. Normally her Chosens always did that for her, if they weren't the ones making her cookies themselves. "Several croissants- four maybe?- and some cheese bread, two chocolate-chip cookies, and, uh- do you have anything cakey that travels well and is small?"

"We have glazed petits fours."

"Oh, perfect! Those look delicious! I'll take three of those."

Adrien was practically drooling as he peeked out to watch as Madam Cheng packed Tikki's purchases away into a bag. He ducked back into the pocket and turned his kitten eyes back on Ladybug. "Any chance of you sharing, my lady?"

" _Chaton_."

"Pretty please? I'll pay you back for the entire purchase."

Ladybug gave him a long look before sighing. " _Fine_."

"You're the best!"

They quieted down as Tikki patted their pocket. Soon after, they heard the crunch of the bag as Tikki picked it up, and then they were moving again. The bell tinkled as they left.

Plagg was on Tikki immediately. "Did you get the cheese bread?"

Tikki shoved him away. "Of course I did. Wait until we get to the park. We can eat there."

Adrien was pretty sure Plagg had never moved that fast before in his life.

 

* * *

 

Ladybug was halfway through her second petits four and Adrien was polishing off the last of his croissants when the screams grew closer. The four of them froze before turning in unison to search for the source. It didn't take long for them to recognize the distinctive outfit and flashing light of Walk-a-Mile, who was standing on the rooftops and terrorizing the few people still out and about.

"Okay, it is get outta here time," Plagg announced, stuffing the leftovers in the bag and pulling Tikki to her feet. "We find an alley, we hide the food and wallet there, and we get this finished. I've decided that being a human is tiresome. I much like being a kwami instead."

"You mean you like being lazy," Adrien piped up from where he had been shoved inside Tikki's pocket. "You can't sit around and eat cheese all day if you're human, and you can't let me do all the crime-fighting dirty work."

Plagg shrugged indifferently as he rounded the corner. "Same difference."

They all jumped and the kwami dashed for hiding as Walk-a-Mile suddenly appeared on the rooftops of their street, Cheshire grin on her face as she continued her rampage. She was far too close for them to get to a private alley to transform, so they had to hide instead.

"Get into the store!" Plagg yelped, shoving Tikki in front of him as they narrowly dodged a smattering of beams. They crashed into a small grocery store just in time, making all of the customers look up in surprise before fleeing to the far back of the store. Tikki and Plagg pasted their faces to the front windows.

"She doesn't seem to want to stop the zapping anytime soon," Tikki commented, flinching back when a flash got too close to the window. "Ma- er, Ladybug, has Alya posted anything new?"

The pink kwami popped her head out of the pocket, phone clutched in her tiny hands. "Just theories about why we aren't back out yet. She guessed that we might have gotten hit by beams."

"She's not wrong."

"She also recommended that people stay off the streets. Clearly no one is listening, and by the looks of her livestream, she's not listening to her own advice either." Ladybug dropped the phone back in Tikki's pocket and flew up to watch the chaos in the street. Both she and Tikki gasped as a woman walking a yapping dog got hit. A moment later, the human was spinning in confused circles while the dog freaked out.

"She doesn't switch people with _who_ ever is closest to them," Ladybug realized, blue eyes huge. "She switches people with _what_ ever living object is closest to them!"

Plagg rolled his eyes. "We already knew that. You and Tikki switched, and Chat Noir and I did as well-"

"Plagg, stop being rude. It's interesting to know that people can be switched with their pets. I thought that we were only able to switch because of the bond." Tikki stepped back from the window so she could focus on the conversation without worrying about getting hit herself. "I do wonder how the Healing Light will deal with the switched bodies. Will the person return to where their body is, or will the body go to where the person is?"

Plagg blinked. "What?"

As Tikki tried to explain what she meant, Adrien watched as Ladybug flew to the window to continue watching the chaos on the street. Most people were trying to flee from view, but some seemed frozen in place as they stared at their new hands and body.

"Look at that guy!" Ladybug giggled, pointing to the only person on the street that didn't seem bothered. "I bet it's Alya!"

"What?" Adrien flew over to see who she was looking at. It didn't take long to figure out why Ladybug had pointed the guy out. The almost maniacal grin and outstretched phone were pretty much dead giveaways, as was the fact that whoever it was had run into the destruction zone instead of away. Such _Alya_ traits seemed out of place on the middle-aged man's body.

"I wonder how many times she's been hit," Ladybug added, a wide grin on her face as she watched. "At least once, obviously." As she spoke, Walk-a-Mile's light flashed again, this time directly at the guy in question. He didn't flinch at all until after the flash cleared, when he immediately started screaming. A woman in her twenties nearby rolled her eyes, snatched the phone, and continued filming as she ran down the street after the akuma. The process repeated once more before both reporter and akuma vanished around the corner.

_Well,_ Adrien thought as he watched. _She's resilient, if nothing else._

"It's probably safe to get going now," Tikki said as soon as the sounds of terror and chaos faded away. "We need to find an alley or something and hide the food and Ma- er, Ladybug's wallet, just so we know that it's safe."

Adrien pouted. "But I never got to try the petits fours!"

"Just stuff him in the food bag while we search for a place to transform," Ladybug sighed as she dove back into Tikki's pocket. "And you can have the leftovers after we get switched back."

 

* * *

 

Once they transformed, it didn't take long to find Walk-a-Mile. The akuma hadn't travelled very far after passing the grocery store, even though she was having a harder and harder time finding people to body-swap.

Alya seemed to be a popular target, if the fact that her phone had been handed off again was any indication.

"Okay, so do we go in assuming that Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers are still functional?" Tikki asked as she and Plagg crouched behind a chimney, both transformed. Plagg kept hissing as he adjusted his crouch incessantly, complaining about how uncomfortable his human body was. "There's no real way to test if they do- stop _complaining_ , Plagg! We need to deal with this ourselves. Our chosen have to deal with discomforts all of the time."

"But I'm a _god_ ," Plagg complained, finally flopping onto his stomach. "I'm supposed to always be comfortable and well-fed."

Tikki kicked his side and he yelped. "Get _up!_ " she hissed. "If Walk-a-Mile found us now, you would get hit!"

Plagg yawed widely, showing off slightly pointed canines. "Yes, and my Chosen would get to take over again! How horrid!"

All Tikki could do was splutter. "It'll interrupt our fighting pattern! And Chat Noir used Cataclysm before you got swapped last time, so who knows if you'd have to recharge properly before re-joining the fight! Do you _really_ want me fighting all on my own? I've never done it before!" Tikki widened her big blue eyes at Plagg, letting her lower lip quaver slightly as she layered on the dramatics.

Plagg scowled and rightened himself. "That's cheating."

"It's just the truth." Leaning forward, Tikki peered around the chimney. "Okay, so here's what we're going to do..."

 

* * *

 

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Tikki called, throwing her Lucky Charm into the air. The battle with Walk-A-Mile had just finished and had gone surprisingly well, considering that both she and Plagg were inexperienced fighters. She had whacked Walk-A-Mile's zapper out of the akuma's hands with a boomerang that her Lucy Charm had summoned while Plagg was acting as a distraction. Plagg had Cataclysmed the weapon, releasing the akuma for Tikki to catch and purify.

The Lucky Charm boomerang twisted in the air and burst into a flurry of sparkling ladybugs, curling around both the superheroes and the citizens in the streets before vanishing around corners, seeking out more people to switch back. But when the ladybugs cleared, both heroes gaped.

"It didn't work," Plagg gasped, looking at his body. "I mean, I _look_ like the normal Chat Noir, but it's still me!"

Tikki was looking frightened. "I'm sure it'll flip back correctly eventually," she said, her nerves clearly showing in her voice even though she was trying to hide them. "Maybe we just have to detransform first for it to work all the way."

"Detransforming _better_ work," Plagg grumbled as his ring gave its first _beep_. "I don't wanna be stuck in a human body for the rest of my life. The kid has _work_ he has to do. I hate work."

"Let's get back to that alley," Tikki said. She winced, pressing a palm to her forehead. "I can feel the switch trying to happen. It's like we're fighting for control of the body. _Uuugh,_ I feel sick."

"It's giving me a headache and I'm not even supposed to be _able_ to get headaches," Plagg muttered, following Tikki anyway as she dashed away. " _Oooh_ , the ground is spinning. Is it supposed to do that?"

"Here's the alley!" Tikki cried, and a moment later both of them tumbled gracelessly into the alleyway, thrown off balance by a sudden onset of dizziness. Plagg huddled by the wall near the first dumpster and groaned, clutching at his head with his hands. Tikki managed to stumble around the dumpster to head further down the alley, out of sight of both the street and Plagg. Both of them released their transformations, and for a second, the world spun uncomfortably.

And then everything was still.

Tikki blinked her eyes open uncertainly. In front of her, an equally nauseous Marinette was leaning against the building next to the alley. They locked eyes and grinned in relief.

"I was worried there a little bit," Tikki confessed, flying down into Marinette's hands a little unsteadily. "Did you feel it too, when we were fighting for control of your body?"

"Ugh, yes." Marinette pressed a hand to her forehead, wincing. "Let's never do that again."

"Agreed!" Plagg's voice piped up from the other side of the dumpster. "Ugh, I still feel sick! Can I get some cheese?"

"I'm going to be sick if I have to smell your cheese right now," a voice Marinette recognized as Chat Noir's shot back. "Actually, I'm going to be sick if I smell _any_ food right now. I'll have to save my pastries for later."

"Can I have the rest of my cheese bread now?"

"I hope other people's switches went better than ours," Marinette said, sliding down to sit on the ground. The last vestiges of nausea had yet to leave her. "My head is still spinning."

"Mine too." There was a pause, broken only by the sound of Chat Noir's kwami munching on his bread. Marinette rubbed at her temples, letting her eyes close as her headache slowly faded away. If it wasn't just the Miraculous' interference and everybody was feeling the effects of the reverse body-switch, she could only imagine how bad people who got flipped several times would feel. Most people hadn't- they had the common sense to take off after getting hit by an akuma- but others...

"So, where do you think Alya ended up?"

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, Ladybug's Miraculous Cure simply returned people to their bodies instead of moving the body to wherever the person had ended up. This had the result of citizens ending up in other people's homes after the last of the ladybug sparkles had faded away. The police worked overtime all afternoon trying to get people home from unfamiliar parts of the city and tracking down children that had gone home with the wrong parent.

"I spent _forever_ trying to find my phone after the attack," Alya told Marinette the next day. "The person I switched bodies with first ran in the opposite direction as the akuma, and she even took the subway across town to get as far away as she could. At least the last person I switched with was sensible enough to end the livestream after Ladybug and Chat Noir left so that I didn't have to edit a bunch of extra footage afterwards, and then they texted my mom to let her know where my phone was."

Marinette privately thought that Alya was probably very lucky that her phone had just happened to end up in the hands of someone trustworthy who wouldn't end the stream and steal the phone. After all, Alya had a very nice phone and it could have ended up with _anyone_.

"Were there any side effects to the switching?" Adrien asked, twisting around in his seat and stealing the question straight out of Marinette's mouth. "From what I saw on the Ladyblog, you got hit by Walk-a-Mile quite a few times."

Alya shrugged, grinning. "I lost track after the twenty-seventh hit. I was a little dizzy after Ladybug's Cure flipped me back to my normal body, but I was fine after a couple seconds. I was asking other people who only got switched once about it and they said that they weren't dizzy at all."

_That_ was good, Marinette thought as Nino lightly scolded Alya for putting herself in such danger during the fight. If everybody had felt as sick as she and Chat Noir had, there would probably be some talk going around about if there were any limitations to Lucky Charm. That could have positive side effects, of course- she wouldn't mind at all if people (especially reporters, _especially_ Alya) were a little more cautious about charging into akuma fights- but there were others that would probably hop on any weakness that the superheroes showed. The rag magazines would probably have a field day with the alarmist headlines claiming that she and Chat Noir were getting weakened by the constant attacks or some such nonsense.

(Really, she hadn't fully appreciated what _pests_ those stupid magazines were until they started going after her and Chat Noir.)

"But I got some _awesome_ footage of Ladybug and Chat Noir's fight," Alya said, waving her phone in Nino's face. "I had _just_ managed to get on-site when they got hit." She opened the Ladyblog and started the video. It showed the somewhat disastrous chain of events that led to Ladybug falling. Chat Noir suddenly streaked through the frame, trying to tackle Ladybug out of the way and instead only getting hit as well. "I totally thought that they would switch bodies, which would be _totally_ awesome to see how they fight as each other, but instead- _this_." Alya paused the video as the light cleared and the superheroes could be seen clearly again.

"Woah, what happened?" Nino exclaimed, grabbing Alya's phone for a closer look. "They _look_ different. Did Walk-a-Mile hit them with a different spell? And what was up with that name, did you find out?"

"No, Walk-a-Mile seemed as confused as they were." Alya re-started the video. "And yeah, the akuma victim was originally from the U.S."

"Some of my followers thought that Ladybug and Chat Noir _did_ switch bodies, but their magic made the side effects. I was a little tempted to believe them at first, because the switched Chat Noir kind of _did_ have the same sort of coloring as Ladybug, but the switched Ladybug didn't go blonde and pale." Alya shrugged, clearly perplexed. "I was going to ask them before they left after the fight, but, y'know, the Miraculous Cure sort of moved me all the way across town. And from what I heard, they took off right away once the fight was done."

"Oh, weird," Nino said, looking back at the video. "Do you think..."

Marinette smiled to herself as Nino and Alya swapped ideas about what might have gone down during the fight. They were all completely off, of course, since no one knew about Tikki and Plagg's existence, but it was still incredibly interesting to hear what an outside observer thought had happened. The theories got stranger and stranger, until finally-

"D'you think they were somehow time-swapped with a past Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

**Author's Note:**

> Like most of the things I write, this is a one-shot and is therefore complete.
> 
> Please leave reviews! They make my day :)


End file.
